Hogan Racing was a racing team owned by Carl Hogan, owner of Hogan Trucking.
The team was founded in December 1991 as Hogan and Bobby Rahal purchased the distressed Patrick Racing CART IndyCar World Series team. The team won the championship in its first try in 1992 with driver Bobby Rahal on the back of four race wins. In late 1992 the team absorbed TrueSports and moved into TrueSports' facility in Ohio and began using TrueSports' proprietary chassis in 1993. However this proved disastrous as Rahal and teammate Mike Groff both failed to qualify for the 1993 Indianapolis 500 in the car. Rahal switched to a Lola chassis for the next race while Groff soldiered on with the RH01 until August. In 1994 the team was the first to sign on with new engine manufacturer Honda but the team again struggled at Indianapolis and Rahal borrowed cars from Team Penske to get himself and Groff into the field with Rahal finishing 3rd and Groff crashing 28 laps into the race. In 1996 Rahal and Hogan split and Hogan formed Hogan Racing and Rahal led Team Rahal.
For 1997 Hogan signed rookie Dario Franchitti and selected Reynard Chassis with Mercedes-Benz-Ilmor power. Franchitti finished 22nd in points with a best finish of 9th and moved to Team KOOL Green at the end of the season. For 1998 Hogan signed ex-F1 driver J. J. Lehto.[1] Lehto, despite his credentials, only managed 20th in points with a best finish of fifth at Surfers Paradise. 1999 brought second-year driver Helio Castroneves full-time and pay driver Luiz Garcia, Jr. for a handful of late-season road races. Castronves finished second at Gateway International Raceway and won the pole the following week at the Milwaukee Mile as the highlights of a season where he finished 15th in points. Hogan signed Castroneves under the condition that Castroneves' management team led by Emerson Fittipaldi would generate $3 Million USD in sponsorship for the team. However, the sponsorship did not materialize and Castroneves and Hogan began to be forced to pay for operations out-of-pocket. Due to the mounting losses and little prospects for sponsorship, Hogan decided to shut the team down at the end of the season.[2]
References
- ^ CHAMPCAR/CART: Hogan signs JJ Lehto, CART PR via Motorsport.com, December 5, 1997, Retrieved 2011-01-17
- ^ McGee, Ryan. One turbulent ride for Castroneves, ESPN, March 24, 2009, Retrieved 2011-01-17